Category: guitar

Bob Bain has played the guitar as a studio guitarist since the early 1950s, and he was active as a guitar player until recently. Bob passed away at the age of 94 in June 2018.

Fretboard Journal has published a great post about Bob Bain including a set of videos filmed in 2017, together with Bill Frisell and Dennis Budimir.

I enjoyed reading about Bill Bain who played the guitar for so many movies and TV shows like Bonanza, Peter Gunn, M.A.S.H. or The Pink Panther. And I enjoyed listening to some great examples of the music played by Bob Bain.

As a studio guitarist Bob Bain had to play all kind of plucked instruments, beginning with the typical rhythm guitar used in Jazz bands of the 50s (his prewar Gibson L-5), Rock guitars in the 60s and 70s (his Fender Telecaster), acoustic guitar (Martion O-18), 12-string guitar, banjo, mandolin – as a studio guitarist you must always be prepared – and be at the right place at the right time.

I have added the links to some great interviews with BobBain at the end of thisd post where you can read great stories about guitars, movies, singers and bands.

Whether you realize it or not, you’ve heard the guitar of Bob Bain. In all reality, you couldn’t miss it. Starting in the 1950’s and through the 80’s (not counting today’s re-runs or syndicated programming), if you watched television shows like Peter Gunn, Bonanza, Mission Impossible, The Munsters and M.A.S.H., it was Bob Bain’s guitar that you heard on the themes. For 22 years, Bob was a fixture along with Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show Band during the Johnny Carson era on NBC. But you’ve also heard his work in movies like Thoroughly Modern Millie and on recordings with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole. Bob has also recorded several albums of his own on Capitol Records, recorded with the group Guitars Unlimited, and produced a couple of releases by jazz pianist Junior Mance.

It would depend. In the early days with the orchestras, I’d just bring the L-5, because, nine times out of ten, you were playing strictly rhythm, and you didn’t need an electric. Then, electric guitar got more popular, and I’d carry an electric, an acoustic, and my amp in the trunk of my car. I’d always have a banjo, a mandolin, and a ukulele around, as well. I’d also bring a Yamaha 12-string when 12-strings became popular. Eventually, when we sent road cases to studio dates, I added a gut string—a Rodriguez or a Martin—a mandola, a bouzouki, and an electric sitar. For amps, I used a Fender Twin, then a Fender Bassman for a while, a Benson—which was invented by Howard Roberts and Ron Benson—and, finally, a Fender Princeton Reverb.

The mandolin is not a popular instrument in Turkey today. The baglama is the plucked strings instrument that is mostly played in Turkey. But there are a few videos by Turkish musicians with mandolin. Some time ago I was told about the videos by Kerim & Selim Altinok. After I had watched several videos I found that both brothers began losing their sight when they were 4, and are completely blind since they were 18.

Despite of this they studied at the university and established their own company. They did also study music and started a successful carreer as musicians. And they are also fantastic players of chess and took part in international chess competitions.

Between 1940 and 1954 the so called Village Institutes existed in Turkey, institutes to educate teachers for schools for the education of boys and girls in rural countries. In those schols music played an important rule, and in many cases mandolin was taught to the students. I have found many pictures showing groups of mandolin players from this time.

There are some mandolin methods in Turkish language, one method is shown on the website of Kerim and Selim Altinok:

Yeni Mandolin Metodu

Selim, the mandolin player, has used youtube to discover the many ways the mandolin is played in the world. He would like that the mandolin gets a better place in the musical life in Turkey.

Playlist Kerim & Selim Altinok

Playliste 2 – Kerim & Selim Altinok

Additional Information

Brothers Kerim and Selim Altinok were born just 45 seconds apart. They partially lost their sight at the age of four and totally lost it a few days before their 18th birthday. Although they had to overcome difficulties fully sighted people would not have to, they have never stopped fighting.

They finished primary school, and at university, they graduated with honors from the Istanbul University Faculty of Law. They specialized in financial law. The brothers have also represented Turkey in the field of chess and Selim has drawn with world chess champion Anatoly Karpov.

Career and art

The Altinok brothers got involved in art while they were building their careers. They started playing various instruments at an early age and decided to become professional musicians. They passed the exams at the Istanbul State Conservatory.

As part of the Bakirköy Association for the Blind, the brothers formed a choir named Gözder, composed entirely of blind members, in 1991. They aim to share their knowledge from the conservatory with the choir and prove that all disabilities can be overcome with good music education.

At soundcloud you can find a playlist with instrumental pieces, played with mandolins and guitar, including popular pieces like O Sole Mio, an arrangement of the Aranjuez guitar concerto by Rodrigo, ot the popular Southamerican tune El Condor Pasa.

Al di Meola has published his CD All Your Life – A Tribute To The Beatles in 2013. On this CD he has recordid 14 songs by the Beatles in his arrangement. The recordings were done in the Abbey Roads Studios in London.

Al di Meola has also played his arrangements of Beatles songs in many of his concerts, and there are many great videos available at youtube.

I have recently compiled a playlist with videos from the album A Tribute To The Beatles. The playlist starts with a fantastic set of videos from a concert given in Warsaw.

The first concert during our holiday in London was a free concert which took place in the National Portrait Gallery. Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas played a program with guitar music from Cuba by Leo Brouwer, Eduardo Martin and José Antonio (Ñico) Rojas Beoto.

Ahmed Dickinson has transcribed may pieces by Nico Rojas and made those available for the guitarists. Some compositions by Nico Rojas can be found in the playlist below.

Eduardo Martin is another composer from Cuba whose compositions are played regularly by guitarists around the world. Ahmed Dickinson played some movements from the Calendar Suite, you can find some of those movements in the playlist as well.

For my post I have selected another composition by Eduardo Martin, Inevitable & Chacumbele:

Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas – Inevitable & Chacumbele – Eduardo Martin

Ahmed Dickinson has also played with a string quartet, this is a great video from the live performance of the Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet by Leo Brower.

Ahmed Dickinson and the Santiago Quartet: Quintet- Leo Brouwer

Live performance of the Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet by Leo Brouwer. Featuring renowned Cuban guitarist Ahmed Dickinson and the Santiago Quartet.

It was while appearing at Havana’s International Guitar Festival in 2000 that Rojas met Ahmed Dickinson, with whom he struck up a friendship. Realising that the old master could not read music and was in danger of forgetting his own works, Dickinson transcribed 33 of Rojas’ compositions over the next five years, with help from Rojas and his son Jesús. Five of Rojas’ compositions were recorded by Marco Tamayo on the album Guitar Music From Cuba (Naxos Classical) in 2004, and in October this year Ahmed Dickinson – now based in London – released his début album, Ahmed Dickinson Plays Nico Rojas (Cubafilin Records), which consisted of 16 Rojas compositions.